Bob Brennan was a friend to all

Thursday was a beautiful day for Bob Brennan's memorial at Fairchild Tropical Gardens where he was head arborist. About 300 people or so gathered at the Arboretum (which is sort of a museum of trees), under a perfect blue sky, folks that knew Bob, spoke. The old trees most likely were planted by David Fairchild himself. Bob would have loved the spot. It was lush and green and protected by large, mature trees.

Bob Brennan

It was enjoyable hearing about how gracious the whole Brennan family is, their door is open for anyone, day or night. People just come and go as they please. Bob was a friend, father, uncle, mentor and so much more to so many people.

At a few crucial times I and others felt that we heard from Bob during the event. At one point a flock of birds, many birds, swooped up from the ground and flew overhead, circling everyone, gracing the crowd, you could hear gasps from the crowd. Then more than once, a gentle wind came through, maybe three times at different points of the ceremony, and lots of big yellow leaves rained down each time. It was very noticeable and special.

It was a nice day for Bob, who was our friend, Santa, mentor, aborist, scout master, dad, husband, son, do-gooder, and so much more. He was everything to everyone.

There was talk of how Bob would stop to help stranded strangers change a tire, or he would stop and help push a stuck car out of traffic and of course he worshiped trees. After the ceremony, as I walked through Center Grove, a car was making a turn, and a bunch of tourists ran in front of the car, the driver stopped short and sat patiently, she just waited for the people to cross, even though she had the right of way. A friend who I was with recognized the driver as being someone she had seen at Bob's memorial. We both agreed that perhaps the driver learned something about patience and grace from Bob and she showed it by her actions, or in-actions. It's what Bob would have done.

Plans are being made to plant a tree in Bob's name, somewhere at Fairchild Gardens, most likely on his birthday, which is January 21.